Haas staff principal Guenther Steiner says Nico Hulkenberg is “completely” the perfect qualifying driver he has had driving for his staff.
Hulkenberg joined the Haas staff at first of this season instead of Mick Schumacher. It’s Hulkenberg’s first full marketing campaign in System 1 since 2019, when he raced for Renault.
Over the primary ten rounds of the 12 months, Hulkenberg has began inside the highest 10 greater than half the time, reaching Q3 on 5 events – as soon as greater than Purple Bull driver Sergio Perez. He has additionally out-qualified staff mate Kevin Magnussen by a ratio of 8-2.
Alfa Romeo sporting director Beat Zehnder recently named Hulkenberg as the best qualifying driver he has ever worked withas the driving force raced for the staff in 2013 when it was generally known as Sauber. Chatting with media in Hungary yesterday, Steiner agreed with with Zehnder’s assertion.
“I might say so, completely,” Steiner stated. “He can put a lap collectively that generally comes from nowhere, which is nice.
“Beat has been within the sport rather a lot longer than me, so I respect his opinion, however he [Hulkenberg] is an excellent qualifier, as we’ve seen this 12 months. I imply, he acquired 3 times into Q3, so for positive, he’s an excellent qualifier. Is he the perfect one on the planet or ever? I don’t find out about that.”
Steiner has indicated the staff needs to proceed with Hulkenberg for subsequent season. His staff mate Magnussen, who scored a shock pole place for the dash race at Interlagos final 12 months, is because of renew his contract on the finish of this 12 months.
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Steiner says he’s glad with Magnussen’s efficiency in 2023. “We’re fairly comfortable,” he stated. “Clearly generally in qualifying he’s not there the place he desires to be, however clearly I don’t want to inform him that. He’s engaged on that. However it should come. We’re fairly assured.”
Finding out the long run contracts together with his two drivers is a matter of “just some little particulars, nothing large,” stated Steiner.
“I all the time communicate with them and we’re in a superb place,” he stated when requested what was stopping Haas from confirming extensions with each.
Chatting with media on the Hungaroring, Magnussen admitted that his qualifying outcomes had not been as he would have wished, however stated his tempo on Sundays confirmed he was equal to staff mate Hulkenberg.
“Qualifying this 12 months has been troublesome for a lot of totally different causes,” Magnussen defined. “We’ve had many occasions the place we’ve had climate and I’ve made the improper decisions on tyres or pitted on the improper time. Simply various things like visitors after which some technical points.”
An influence unit drawback halted Magnussen throughout qualifying for the final race at Silverstone. “We’ve had all kinds of various points that’s form of ruined our qualifying so many occasions,” he stated. “And the sector is so shut that even a slight little mishap can actually price you large time – particularly in Q1, you’re out of Q1 and that’s it, you don’t get to have an opportunity to redeem your self.
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“So I don’t really feel the tempo has been unhealthy. I feel within the races, if you happen to take a look at the tempo each Sunday, it’s good. That’s form of what provides you confidence. I don’t imply by way of different groups, however not less than in comparison with my staff mate, there’s no problem there.”
Hulkenberg has arrived on the Hungaroring sporting bleached blonde hair for this weekend. Steiner admitted he was stunned to see his driver flip up wanting like “Ken from Barbie or one thing.”
“It’s fashionable now,” he added. “I don’t actually know – I nonetheless have to search out out why he did that!”
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2023 Hungarian Grand Prix
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Revealed : 2023-07-21 07:14:23
